Ion exchange resins are conventionally used in various nuclear reactor collant, water make-up and other systems for removing mineral, metallic and other impurities from water circulated through the reactor and its associated components. Contrary to practices followed in commercial and domestic ion exchange systems used for conditioning water, the radioactive resins in the reactor systems usually are not regenerated, and once spent, must be disposed of as radioactive waste.
Various methods have been developed for disposing of the radioactive water and resins. Currently, the spent resins are separated from a resin-water mixture by utilizing a centrifuge which isolates the resins to eventually form a radioactive paste or cake which is disposed of in suitable containers. In those cases where disposal of the water does not take place, it is recycled to the waste process system for further use. In other system, the resin-water slurry is mixed with a fixing agent and discharged to an appropriate disposal package. In still other systems, the resin-water slurry above is discharged into an evacuated drum filled with dry cement and equipped with a screen cage insert. The slurry fills the cage and water seeps through the screen into the cement lining the cage thereby encapsulating the resin in a lining of solidified concrete.
All of these and other disposal methods are expensive because the large volume of radioactive resin and water must be contained in an appropriate receptacle to eliminate the possibility of later escape to the environment in which the receptacles are buried or stored. Moreover, substanial effort in terms of time and labor costs, and material costs, is required to carry out the processing and encapsulation of the radioactive waste products in order to comply with prevailing rules and regulations governing their disposal.